O n an average day, the America's Cup '95 Web site on the Internet draws some 60,000 looky-loos. But on March 6, when Australia's $3 million prize sloop sank off the San Diego Coast, traffic swelled to tidal-wave proportions. Better than 300,000 people logged on that day to catch the gory details.

C all it the power of the interactive press. For racing fans, America's Cup On Line is a scorecard-cum-photo gallery and gossip column. For Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), which developed the cyber-site, it's an image-building coup. America's Cup On Line is "a product that demonstrates our ability in the information technology business area," explains James M. Swartz, chief information officer and corporate vice president for the employee-owned corporation.

F rom Cup '95 you're a mere mouse click away from SAIC's own Web site. Even if managers don't log on, their influential underlings might. And some of these hits have generated business contacts with Fortune 500 companies.

S AIC provides high-technology services and products to the government and the private sector in areas of energy, environment, health, space, systems integration and transportation. The company is nearing the 20,000-employee mark and a $2-billion-plus revenue stream.

I nternally, SAIC uses the Web to communicate with its troops that are scattered over 350 locations worldwide. Personnel manuals are on this private portion of the Net, along with corporate financial instructions, administrative changes, and encryption research results. (SAIC has several contracts in the security field--a hot button in cyberspace--and is investigating various encryption tools.)

W ith presentation materials and view graphs on the internal Web, field reps get to travel lighter. They simply tuck a portable computer under one arm, breeze into the client's office, and call up the appropriate home pages.

T he external or public portion of SAIC's Web pages are for show-and-tell or better yet, "show-and-sell," says Swartz. Net surfers can dip into the company's annual report, corporate history, mission statement and white papers. They can check out current job openings, comb the latest news releases on technologies, contracts and customers, sign the corporate guest book, and read what other visitors have written.

"Thoroughly impressed with your Home Page and ancillary pages on the World Wide Web," wrote one appreciative cruiser. " I've never seen as much information about a company."

B ut Swartz has no illusions about staying competitive in this brave new medium. "Right now, it's gee whiz-- it looks kind of interesting," he says. But as business traffic on the information highway builds and overwhelms the viewer, multimedia Web technology "will become a commodity--like TV"--and creative writers and artists will duke it out for market share.

I f you're inching toward a marketing presence on the Web, Swartz has these tips: Increase the likelihood of hits by getting on other people's home pages. Include your Web address on your business card and in all of your company's print, radio and TV advertising. Don't overload your home page with glitzy graphics that take hours to pull up on poky home modems. And refresh your Web site regularly with new information, so that visitors will keep on coming back.

Return to Web Cottage Home Page